GILRAIN
by Candia
Summary: Oneshot in the style of the Sillmarillion. An elf washes up on the shores of Numenor, and a maiden finds him...Don't worry, not a Mary Sue! I thinkPlease R&R.


This is written in the style of the Sillmarillion, which is very different from my usual style so bear with me. Despite this I'm quite pleased with it. The story is set in Numenor and I've tried to follow canon as much as possible, but if there are any glaring errors please tell me.

Anyway, enjoy!

So the Númenóreans were divided. Yet there were still some who valued the Valar above all, and followed them. One was a maid named Gilrain Gailmith's daughter. She had lost her family long before and lived alone on the shores of the sea, on the Westward end of Númenór where few now walked, giving still the first fruits of her labour to Eru and climbing the Hallow upon the Height of Meneltarma.

But one day a messenger came to her telling her that her grandmother, her last kin upon Middle-Earth, had died of age and weariness and she was stricken with grief.

She stood upon the sacred ground on the Height of Meneltarma, at the highest point of Númenór, and looked out to sea; to the distant land of Alquallónë, and she cried,

"Oh great spirits of the Valar, hear me! I am one of thy most faithful followers of all the Elendili. I gave my fruits of labour to thee and remembered and revered thee while others hated and feared thee. Now I have nothing left to give thee, thou hast taken all thou could, and left me alone and forsaken. Yet still I love thee. I ask only this of thee, that I may look upon the glory of Aman, ere I die. I have been thy most faithful servant; please grant me this one wish."

And the Valar heard Gilrain as she stood alone on that great height, on the ground sacred to the Valar, and were grieved. Ulmo the Ocean Lord, who cares most for men, desired to go at once and show her she was not forsaken. But Manwë forbade it, saying that her fate was already decided. Then Mandos stood and spoke thus.

"I have seen that her fate is not that of Men, she shall not go into the Darkness of the Gift of Ilúvatar," he said no more and Manwë was silent. Thus the Fate of Gilrain was decided and Nienna wept for her into the dark waters.

It was at this time that a member of the Elven folk of the Teleri felt the need to take to sea. Elrandir was his name, and he was a prince of the Teleri of Alquallónë. Tall and fair, hair dark as night and skin white as stars, he was the fairest of the that race of Elves, his beauty surpassing the mighty Noldor, greatest in craft, and even a number of the Vanyar, who are regarded as the fairest of all. For long now he had felt restlessness in his heart; and a weariness of the bays of the Teleri; and ever his eyes looked Eastward.

Then one day he commanded a special ship be built, in the likeness of a great swan. Very fair was this ship when it was finished, echoing the glory of the first ships of the Teleri ere the Kinslaying and the burning of their ships by the Noldor. Alqua this ship was called, that is "Swan" in the language of old. And Manwë watched and was silent.

Then Elrandir set sail with a crew of bold Teleri who were loyal to him. But Doom came upon them between the Enchanted Isles; that the Valar had set up as a fence against the banished Noldor. For in those waters a great weariness came upon them, and a loathing of the sea. So the crew of Elrandir rebelled, and wished to stay upon the Enchanted Isles. But Elrandir had heard the tales that surrounded them, how those that landed were doomed to remain there, and he forbade them. But the greater part of the crew still felt the enchantment and diving from the ships prow, endeavoured to reach the Isles, but they were lost upon the sea. Thus only Elrandir and three others past the Enchanted Isles and reached the High Seas under the stars.

But their sorrows were not ended yet. For a great storm came up and beat their ship to pieces in the middle of the sea. Only Elrandir survived the storm; clinging to a piece of driftwood he was at the mercy of the waves, and he cried out to Uinen to calm her spouse's wrath. And the sea became calm and still.

Thus it continued for many days. Elrandir clung to the driftwood, barely alive as the tides took him where they would. After many days had passed he espied a great Isle ahead of him. Númenór. Ulmo the Ocean Lord was leading him on a straight course towards it.

It was on that very day that Gilrain was down by the shore to hide from the soldiers of the King who had been questioning her about her devotion to the Valar, which was forbidden. She espied something in the water heading towards the shore, and caught it as it washed up. It was Elrandir. Gilrain stood amazed to see an Elf before her, fairer than anything she had ever seen, but she took him to her house where he lay near death for many days. She cared for him and healed the many hurts he had suffered on the seas, but still he lay in a desperate fever and she feared greatly for him. Then after ten days he suddenly opened his eyes and looked at her, and he said.

"Who is this that saved me from the sea?" and Gilrain answered.

"I am Gilrain Gailmith's daughter, one of the faithful of Númenór. You are in my house and are welcome," and he stared at her in wonder, for she seemed to him to be fairer that any Elf maiden he had ever seen, and kinder than the greatest heart, as a princess did she seem to him, and he took her hand and kissed it, and from that point on Elrandir, Prince of the Teleri, loved Gilrain of the Númenóreans, and she likewise loved him.

Elrandir recovered quickly, and was soon able to walk and to help Gilrain with her tasks. But his heart still dwelt with the sea, and often he would stand alone, and watch the waves breaking on the shore, and try to catch a glimpse of Tol Eressëa across the Ocean. Gilrain watched and grieved, for she knew that he desired to return to the Undying Lands, and that it was only his love for her that kept him from sailing, for although his name meant star wanderer, and the desire to travel was strong in him, he remained loyal to Gilrain, despite the longing in his heart. But then one day something happened to force him to make the dreaded choice, and caused one of the strangest events in the history of Númenór.

It had come to the attention of the king that Gilrain still followed the forbidden faith of the Eldar, and he determined not only to stop her, but also to make an example of her to all others who still believed in the Valar. A company of his soldiers was therefore sent to arrest her. They came in secret, and took her by surprise. They fell on her as she was walking on the shore, and they would have taken her, were it not for Elrandir. He saw them from afar attacking Gilrain, and he was filled with a great wrath. Forgetting that in showing himself he condemned both he and Gilrain to an uncertain doom, he fell upon her attackers and beat them off. Such was their surprise in seeing an Elf appear as if from nowhere full of fiery wrath that the soldiers fled in terror and amazement. But the knowledge that Gilrain was harbouring an Elf drove the king to a great fury. He ordered that both of them were to be captured and made examples of to the whole kingdom. First finding out how Elrandir came to be on Númenór. Amandil the Elf-friend, Lord of the Faithful of Númenór, and father of Elendil the Tall, heard of this terrible order and sought out Gilrain and told her of what the king had commanded. He could not harbour them himself, though he wished to greatly, for then the king's anger would fall on all his people, and destroy them. So she and Elrandir fled to the Hallow upon Meneltarma, which was sacred ground, for they hoped that the king's soldiers would not dare to set foot there. But the soldiers pursued them, even to the Hallow itself, and they were assailed. Elrandir held the soldiers at bay and bade Gilrain go on, at first she did not, desiring to stay with him, but he commanded her and sorrowfully she obeyed, fleeing to the highest point of Meneltarma. There she cried out in her grief to Manwë,

"O Manwë! Lord! Help us the children of Illúvatar in our need! I beg thee by the lights of the vanished Trees to aid us; do not let us be parted so soon!" and Manwë heard her plea from his seat high on Taniquetil, and was moved to pity by her words. Therefore he sent two of his Eagles over the sea, and flying faster than the north wind they came and they lifted Elrandir away from the astonished eyes of the king's soldiers just as he was overborne, and Gilrain from the highest point of Meneltarma where she stood in wonder, and bore them away to Valinor.

Never before had such a thing happened in Arda and many wondered at it. By the grace of the Valar a mortal of the Race of Men had come to the Undying Lands, and so the words of Mandos came true, for none die in Valinor. So Gilrain was granted an immortal life, and she and Elrandir were wedded on the golden shores of the Teleri, and blissful were their days. But Gilrain never again returned to Númenór, and she became one of the few mortals to live West of the Sea. And so the remarkable tale of Gilrain Gailmith's daughter came to its end; and never again were any of the Race of Men to pass over the Sea.

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